▪Sumner Sambo claims Lawan said: “No”
A political analyst, Sumner Sambo, has maintained that a contender for the seat of the Senate President and the preferred choice of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Senator Godswill Akpabio, might find it hard to emerge as the next Senate President.
Sumner Sambo disclosed how the former Akwa Ibom Governor met with the current Senate President, Ahmad Lawan over his candidacy, but the Senate President, according to the analyst, turned him ( Akpabio) down.
Sambo had said, “We’ve seen Senator Akpabio himself going to meet Ahmad Lawan, and Ahmad Lawan saying that, ‘No’.”
Sambo, who spoke during an interview on Arise Television, said that first, the decision of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC to pick a Christian Southerner as a consensus candidate for the seat of the Senate President was a wise one, since the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the party changed the politics of the National Assembly.
According to him, it was however not enough for the ruling party and Akpabio to relax, even though several lawmakers had declared support for the former Akwa Ibom Governor.
Sambo said that Akpabio might face several oppositions, which might hinder his emergence as the next Senate President.
He stated that Nigeria’s Senate President, Senator Ahmad Lawan was one of the people that might be against the candidacy of Senator Akpabio.
He recounted how Akpabio purportedly met with Lawan, probably to seek his support; but the APC bigwig turned him down.
Sambo said Akpabio’s purported disrespect for the Senate when he was the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs might have caused the rift between him and the Senate President.
He insisted that the ruling party and the candidate would have to work together to ensure that the will of the party is done.
Stay ahead with the latest updates! Join The ConclaveNG on WhatsApp and Telegram for real-time news alerts, breaking stories, and exclusive content delivered straight to your phone. Don’t miss a headline — subscribe now!
